The View from Afar
by AdAbolendam
Summary: 10 years after Return of the Jedi, Han Solo plays a hand of sabaac with the newest Jedi recruit, Obi-Wan's grandson. Turns out, the two have a lot in common.


Aleks hesitated for a fraction of a second, considering.

'Alright, Captain. I'll see your bet and raise.' He pushed the remainder of his chips into the stasis field. 'I'm all in.'

He took a long swallow from his glass and closed his eyes appreciatively.

'Damn good brandy, sir.'

Han grunted in agreement.

'I should hope so. Went through enough trouble to get it.'

'Corellian?'

'Only the best.' Han affirmed, taking a sip of his own beverage. 'For your sake, I hope you're better at sabaac than you are with a lightsaber.'

Aleks eyed the new scorch mark on his wrist and grinned.

'I'm an old hand at bluffing, Captain.'

'Stock-in-trade for a spy,' Han commented.

'Agent,' Aleks countered. 'CorSec employs "agents," Captain. Spies are for holodramas.'

'Remind me of the difference?'

'I will when I ascertain it for myself,' Aleks murmured, rearranging his cards.

'Pure sabaac,' Han announced, laying his own cards on the table.

Aleks cleared his throat and frowned. He threw in his own hand, face down on the dejarik table. 'Apparently my "spy" skills could use some work.'

'What'd you have?'

'Allow me to retain some of my dignity, Captain.'

Han grinned broadly.

'Keep your dignity, Agent. Just as long as I can retain your chips.'

He triggered the killswitch on the stasis field and swept the full sabacc pot into a pile on his side of the table. Aleks pushed back and rubbed his shoulder with a grimace.

'The kid really let you have it today, huh?'

Aleks frowned. 'My new "master" doesn't go easy on the new recruits, it seems.'

' "Master",' Han repeated. 'That still gets me. And Luke is, what? Five years younger than you?'

Aleks held up two fingers.

'Two,' Han corrected himself. 'I guess he just seems a lot younger.'

'It's that blue-eyed innocence. Still a farm boy under all that self-assumed gravitas.'

Han cradled his chilled glass in his hands and leaned back. 'I thought I was the only one who still saw him that way.'

'Without making too many assumptions, Captain, I imagine that you and I have seen a few things that makes our young friend comparatively naïve.'

'I don't know about naïve,' Han defended. 'Naively optimistic, maybe.'

'Don't take my observations disparagingly, Captain. It takes a special individual indeed to see the horrors of the galaxy and emerge with a sense of optimism, however misplaced.'

'Must have had a good childhood,' Han remarked sardonically.

'We should have all been so lucky.'

The two raised their glasses in grim camaraderie.

'Speaking of which, where is my new master?'

'Ah, he and Leia are going over the briefings.'

'Briefings?'

'The Jedi stationed off-planet report back weekly to Luke and he and Leia get together and coordinate… whatever. Jedi stuff.'

'Sounds terribly involved.'

'Whatever,' Han repeated. 'Doesn't concern me. I just go where they tell me to go.'

'Do you enjoy being a kept man?' Aleks asked.

'Depends on who's doing the keeping,' Han answered with a grin. 'It's okay for now. Supply runs and diplomatic drops are never as straight-forward as they should be, what with a third of the systems still sympathetic to the Imperial faction and half of the Republic still weary of anyone claiming to be a Jedi…'

'Never dull then?'

Han shook his head. 'It is never that.'

'How about you, Renton? Things get dull at CorSec? What makes a man decide to take a career shift from "agent" to Jedi? Luke's not that good of a negotiator.'

'Your wife is.'

Han groaned, reaching into a secret cache beneath the dejarik table. He took out a cigar from the hidden shelf and held it to his lips, taking advantage of Leia's absence to indulge the old vice.

'That she is,' Han agreed, lighting the cigar and puffing methodically. 'But from what I hear, you were practically waiting on an invitation. What was it? Just dying for a chance to walk in your grandad's shoes?'

Aleks gave a rueful grin.

'I never met Kenobi, personally,' he explained. 'But my grandmother filled my head with the stories from the cradle until I was recruited by CorSec. Yes, I suppose I was always waiting for the opportunity.'

'There's more to it than that.'

'Of course there is.'

The two settled into silence and sipped their drinks as cigar smoke filled the small cabin.

'They're very close, the two of them.' Aleks observed.

Han rocked up from his seat and turned on an uptake vent to filter out some of the smoke.

'What's that?'

'Your wife and Master Skywalker.'

'Luke,' Han contradicted him, reclaiming his place on the couch. 'Yeah, they're close.'

'I don't mean to overstep my bounds, Captain, but they act almost as if…'

'Spit it out, Renton.'

'To the casual observer, they seem like a couple.'

'Are you asking me if they are in love?'

'I know they are siblings…

Han shrugged. 'Of course they are.'

He had to laugh as Aleks mouth opened and closed like a mynock grasping for suction.

'Look, Agent. They met just as they both lost the only families they had ever known. They were all each other had. And me, I guess. And Chewie. But they share blood, and the Force-thing, and a fucked-up relationship with their late genocidal, Sith Lord old man. Yeah, they're in love.'

'And, that doesn't… bother you?'

Han sighed and puffed his cigar.

'No. It used to, I guess. But after he and Leia saved my ass for the hundredth time, after she gave me my kids, two of which he delivered, by the way, I decided I could live with it. He's my best friend, my co-pilot excepted. And she's my wife. And they love each other like you love yourself, because they're like two halves of the same person. And they love me because I'm nothing like either one of them.'

'You've given this a lot of thought.'

'Hell, Aleks. My wife is in love with her brother. Of course of given it some thought.'

Han exhaled a cloud of smoke. 'There's another thing though.'

Aleks nodded.

'It ain't Luke's bed she's sharin at the end of the day.'

Aleks smiled, but couldn't help one last inquiry, 'You don't think she ever has?'

'Not since the war.'

His eyes watered as he tried not to choke.

'They told you that?'

'Well, they didn't go into details. And I didn't ask. Why do you want to know, anyway?'

'Just trying to get a lay of the land, Captain.'

'Good luck with that. I've been trying for the better part of fifteen years. The only thing I've learned is that I'm not half-bad at flying blind.'

Aleks nodded and his gaze shifted sideways.

'For the record though,' Han said. 'It's worth it. Those two. They're worth the trouble.'

Aleks returned the sentiment with a ghost of a smile.

Han lifted his head from the dejarik table to the sound of her voice '…smoking in here?'

'Huh? Oh, yeah. Just getting to know the new recruit.'

'You waited up for me.' Leia slid across the bench and tucked her head under his arm.

'I tried.'

'Thank you.' She kissed him lightly. 'How did it go?'

'He's a bad hand at cards for a spy.'

Leia chuckled.

'And I think I've figured it out.'

'You mean, the reason he decided to join us?'

Han looked at her. 'It's Luke, isn't it?'

Leia let out a long breath. 'I think so.'

'Does he feel the same way?'

'I don't know.'

'Yeah, you do,' Han chided.

She snorted lightly.

'Well, the kid could do a lot worse than Aleks Renton.'

Leia turned to look at her husband. 'Do you trust him?'

'Of course not.' Han paused and gave her a rueful smile. 'But I like him. About time you two recruited someone who wasn't all sunshine and flowers, going on about "the Force" this and "I-have-a-feeling" that… And, he appreciates a good beverage.'

'Awww, you made a friend!' Leia teased. 'Is Luke going to have to fight you for him? Am I going to have to fight him for you?'

Han pressed his lips to her temple. 'Nah, wouldn't be a fair fight. Poor guy wouldn't stand a chance.'

The two relaxed against the bench in companionable silence.

'This is going to be interesting, isn't it?' Leia asked.

Han laughed.

'Always is, Sweetheart.'


End file.
